Blue Orca was born out of Glaucus Research, which uncovered serious accounting issues at collapsed sandalwood grower Quintis and Brisbane investment firm Blue Sky Alternative Investments, which also fell into administration following revelations of issues with its disclosures and performance.

Blue Orca hit back at Seek’s response calling it a “flimsy, 2-page response (the “Response”) to our Report in which it failed to meaningfully address any of the substantive evidence of fake posts and zombie resumes raised in our report”. However, Seek shares closed at fresh highs on Friday, up 2 per cent at $31.39.

ASIC has no regulatory oversight of offshore activist short sellers, which are not required to be registered in Australia.

The ASX has for the past few years recommended that companies use trading halts and the exchange’s company announcements platform to respond to short selling reports, saying it viewed short sellers as an important check and balance on share markets.

“The issue is the ambush tactics of offshore, unregulated short sellers that drop reports with sensational claims into a live market without warning, and often with an accompanying social media campaign. These tactics are employed to cause damage for a commercial reason,” an ASX spokesperson said.

While the ASX does not regulate short selling, the spokesman said: “Our preference is for the short seller to release its report outside of the market’s trading hours and to give the target company a chance to prepare a response.”

“We would also ask investors to be mindful of the activist’s motives before acting on the report.”